Sunday, October 12, 2008

Signs of an Upcoming Culture Clash?

From Brianna Howell: Violence in India is raging because of the ongoing religious battle between Christians and Hindus. Violence is not new in this issue, it is only elevating. Recently, more than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 home burned and 130 churches destroyed. Currently in India, roughly 2% of the population is Christian, compared to the 1.1 billion Hindu's in the area.

Hindu extremists are threatening Christians to "Convert or Flee". Mr. Soloman Digal and his family were recently victims of this violence. The family was summoned to a 'public square' in the middle of the city and then were forced to bow down and pray to a portrait of a Hindu preacher. They were then forced to hand over their Bible's and other Christian items found in their house, and watch them be burned. Mr. Digal was then told to "Embrace Hinduism and your house will not be demolished. [If you do not], you will be killed, or thrown out of the village."

The article goes on to provide more instances and examples of situations just like this one. In my opinion, stories like these go on to further prove Huntingon's theory of the Culture Clash. People are using such extreme ways of enforcing their lifestyles on others... I believe it's only a matter of time until this sort of culture/religious intolerance leads to conflict on a greater scale.

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